They used to call him Der Elfer Macher, ‘the man who made the 911’, because Bernd Kahnau worked on six successive generations of 911. Indeed from 1989 to 2011, he was project manager and led the teams who developed the 993, 996, 997 and the 991. In his seminal work, Excellence Was Expected, Karl Ludvigsen refers to Kahnau as “a genial engineer of robust good humour with the sharp practical insight that marks all the best Porsche men.” We went to meet Bernd Kahnau, now living in retirement, at his home of thirty years in Sachsenheim, near Weissach.
Herr Kahnau, what brought you to Porsche?
I come from Illinghen, just a few kilometres from here, and when I was two years old my father, Willi Kahnau, joined Porsche. He was…
